Judge hears climate plan arguments

A Climate Action Plan created by the county to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in the next several years would not go far enough to reach its goals, attorneys for the Sierra Club argued Friday in San Diego County Superior Court.

The Sierra Club is suing the county over the document, which it says lacks necessary specifics and enforcement mechanisms. The county countered that its plan does meet obligations and fulfills a requirement of the state’s greenhouse-gas-emission-reduction law that was passed in 2006.

Judge Timothy B. Taylor sided with the Sierra Club in a tentative ruling earlier this week before listening to oral arguments Friday afternoon. He concluded the hourlong hearing by saying he would make a decision “promptly.”

Cory Briggs, who represented the Sierra Club, argued that the county’s climate plan doesn’t specify deadlines, how it’s going to test for emissions reductions or how the plan is going to be enforced.

Chief Deputy County Counsel C. Ellen Pilsecker argued the county has, in fact, obligated itself to test yearly. She declined to comment publicly after the hearing.

The climate plan is one piece of the county’s general plan update, its blueprint for growth in places like Fallbrook, Valley Center and Ramona. Local and regional governments across the state must create plans to reduce emissions within their boundaries, and the county government has land-use jurisdiction of the rural, unincorporated areas.

The Sierra Club is also suing the San Diego Association of Governments for not setting high enough emission-reduction goals in its regional transportation plan.

Among those in the audience included former Assemblywoman and congressional candidate Lori Saldaña, who agreed with Taylor’s tentative ruling that the plan lacked teeth. She went on to call the county’s plan inadequate.

“If we don’t mandate compliance, we will never achieve the goals of state law,” she said.